Tag! I'm it!

minds alive on the shelves was tagged by Literary License for an author meme! I've seen these floating around and now I get to participate in one.

Here's how it works: Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

1. Who’s your all-time favorite author, and why?
This is a really tough one for me. My reading skips around so much that I'm more likely to have a favorite ______ author. I have a favorite mystery author (Rex Stout), a favorite food author (Michael Ruhlman), a favorite sci-fi author (Neal Stephenson) and others as well. One that won't fall into any of the other categories in this meme is my all-time favorite horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft. I started reading his stories at a very young age and it strongly influenced a lot of the fiction I read for years afterwards. The fantastical elements of his stories, the atmosphere, the vocabulary (I learned the word "eldritch" from Mr. Lovecraft) were all fascinating to me. Luckily, I had parents who were always willing to indulge my strange reading habits, as long as I was reading.

2. Who was your first favorite author, and why?
J.R.R. Tolkien. I read the Lord of the Rings series over and over, until I could nearly recite it. I planned expeditions to Moria and Lothlorien. I learned that a book can be a dear friend, returned to again and again and always enjoyed, no matter how well you know it.

3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?
Arturo Perez-Reverte. After watching the film The Ninth Gate I decided to read the book it was based on, The Club Dumas, to see if I could make any more sense of the film. I quickly devoured most of Reverte's work and fell in love with Captain Alatriste.

4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
Arturo Perez-Reverte, Rex Stout, Clive Barker. If I thought about it a bit, I would probably add Robert B. Parker, Ian McEwan and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

5. Tagged:
It has been tough finding folks who haven't been hit on already, so I apologize if I've accidentally duplicated anyone...
Reading in Appalachia
Adventures in Never-Never Land
Devourer of Books
Book Hangover
Bookshipper
Random Wonder